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Must-Have Utilities |
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| There are just some programs everyone must have to get the most from their photography, editing and graphics arts experience. Here are a few of our tried and true tested recommendations. Just click on the program icon to go to its home website: | |
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This is one of the most fun programs I've come across in awhile. Shape Collage has free and paid versions (both are awesome), plus an online version if you want to use it with online material (be sure you have permissions first, of course!). Click the logo on the left and start creating fantastic collages! |
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This latest addition to our recommended freeware programs list has completely captivated my Digital Camera group. FotoSketcher produces oil, watercolor and other fine art effects and will knock your photography up a few steps. It's another great example of large things coming in small packages. This program comes in two flavors; a full version to install on a computer, and a stand-alone version that will run on anything and not leave a trace. I really like this for field work and demo'g on other folks' machines. Download both versions; you won't regret it. BONUS! Our own Ben Luna prepared a marvelous PDF tuturial for v1.95. Check it out! |
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Below
are two freeware programs that have proven their track records to a
number of us in both the Digital Camera SIG and the Graphics SIG. I
personally have used Irfanview32 since its first incarnation and am
completely enamoured of its simplicity and ease of use for novices
to advanced levels. It's the best all-purpose viewing utility I've
come across yet. But Jack Hord over in Graphics SIG the other day
showed off the attributes of EXIF, and I must say, I'm very
impressed. So much so, that while Irfanview remains my default
program of choice, I've added EXIF to my graphics stable for the
times I want and need that program's unique output of instantaneous
EXIF detail. |
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Irfanview32 - a marvelous little utility written by, whom else? Irfan! It started small with mainly viewing capabilities, but in a few short years has progressed to one of the most intuitive and powerful little utilities for viewing, batch renaming and resizing, slideshowing -- you name it, this program will handle it. Even some little editing tweaks built in now, though we always recommend using a full-function editor like Adobe PhotoShop or JASC Paint Shop Pro if you really want to make serious changes to copies of your image files. This program also displays EXIF information in detail; a real boon to those of us trying to remember just what the heck we did to our camera back then to get that photo! |
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EXIF Image Viewer - a very impressive little utility. Not as intuitively easy to step into as Irfanview, but a few pokes with the mouse will reveal lots of nice sub-routines that allow some impressive viewing formats. From thumbnails to a film strip layout, EXIF puts your images at your fingertips. The most powerful part of this utility is its ease in instantly displaying by default the EXIF information of all image files in a folder. A little module I'll be personally using quite a lot. |
| Remember:
NEVER overwrite your original files under any circumstance! Those
original image files are your "negatives" ... just like
the old 35mm film strip negatives we used to use. Besides, you
overwrite that file, and you'll instantly lose all that wonderful
EXIF info.
Always immediately back up your digital images on a CD, an alternate hard drive when you get back from shooting -- something -- anything! Put a complete set of copies on some other media than the one original source. Copy the images you want to manipulate, and work only from those copies. Don't have a CD writer? Buy one. It's that simple, and it's THAT important. I've seen some writers for as little as $59 and writable CDs cost only pennies. Yes, it's worth it. Trust me, I've lost original digital images in the past that vaporized when a hard drive suddenly failed, before I had backed them up. That's a hard way to learn a lesson. |
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